Wolcott had been monitoring the fire and now saw flames right outside the van's side doors.

"I was facing the hardest decision I've ever had to face in my life," Wolcott said. "It was either let my guys keep trying to free the lady and risk losing them to this fire that was spreading to the point where it was almost inside the van, or pull my guys out and leave her there to die."

Wolcott and Werkheiser had tried unsuccessfully to put out the fire with extinguishers.

And with the crash scene being closer to them than the firehouse, there hadn't been time to get to the firehouse, get a fire truck and return.

"I yelled to Nick and Ken and told them they had 30 seconds to free the passenger and then I was pulling them out, whether they had her or not, because I saw it would be just over 30 seconds before the flames got inside that van," Wolcott said. "That's when Nick finally looked back over his shoulder and saw how close the flames were."

By that point, Werkheiser had cut away the seatbelt tangled around King's arm, but her legs were still trapped under the dashboard.

"My adrenaline had really kicked in at that point," Andriola said. "I didn't know if the lady could hear me or not, but I leaned in close and told her, 'I'm here to help you. This is gonna hurt.'"

Holding King under her arms, Andriola gave a mighty yank and finally got her free.

"I half-jokingly asked Nick if she still had her leg attached because it looked like he'd really yanked her," Wolcott said.

King, of Saylorsburg, was still physically intact, but in and out of consciousness and incoherent.

By that point, West End Ambulance had arrived, along with Pocono Township and Blue Ridge Hook & Ladder fire companies.

The ambulance took King to a helicopter landing site nearby on Reeders Run Road, behind the Jackson Township firehouse, and she was then flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital.

King was still listed in critical condition as of Friday, a week after the crash.

Andriola had been the first firefighter to arrive and the first to approach the burning pickup when he saw driver Brian Campbell unconscious still inside.

Other motorists helped him pull Campbell from the pickup. Efforts to revive Campbell failed, and he was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Meanwhile, motorists had seen injured van driver Carl Lindquist leave the scene on foot prior to Andriola's arrival, but state police later found Lindquist nearby and had him taken to the hospital, according to Wolcott. Lindquist's family said he had left the van to try getting a better cell phone reception in order to call 911.

"We're trained for crashes, car fires and people being trapped, but we've never in my time here had a situation with all three together in one scenario like that," Wolcott said. "I couldn't be prouder of the way our guys handled it.

"It's very tragic that the driver of the pickup died, and we hope the passenger from the van pulls through, but our guys handled that situation in a way that just clicked for everyone involved," he said. "To me, these guys are heroes."

Andriola, 27, moved with his family from New Jersey to the Poconos at age 6 and joined the fire company at age 16.

"A couple days after that incident, I found myself asking why I do this," said Andriola, a meter reader for the UGI utility company. "And thinking about that incident, I told myself that's why I do it: To help people."